


Flight

by Legendaerie



Series: All the Rest is Rust and Stardust [4]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-03
Updated: 2012-06-03
Packaged: 2017-11-06 17:36:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/421533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Legendaerie/pseuds/Legendaerie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a gust of wind, all her dreams come true, and suddenly John is sweeping both of his human friends up in a hug, all teeth and smiles and miles of ridiculous blue hood.  His face is moving too fast for her to study as he squishes her awkwardly against Dave, who is fighting a grin and losing, but he smells like that first crisp wind of autumn that stirred the drying leaves and fills her with energy and joy and peace.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [R_Vienna](https://archiveofourown.org/users/R_Vienna/gifts).



> Shipstuck Sunday prompt for Angie. Personall challenge of 'can I A) write something that's not sadstuck and B) something cute that wrecks my ships?'
> 
> ((no))

As the great golden ship docks and the pathetically small welcoming party approaches the ship, Rose walks with her head in a daze of thoughts.  Never emotions, just ideas - and concerns, and compulsions that might her fight the urge to adjust her clothing.  
  
Dave clears his throat, goes to shove his hands in pockets he doesn't have and then just kinda of pauses for half a moment as he tries to decide where to put them.  Any other day, she would have made some snide comment about him still being a growing boy and having to learn his new teenaged body but frankly she's as out of her comfort zone as he is.  
  
Saying something about it, however, was entirely out of the question.  It was best not to suppress these little niggling fears - will they be happy to see each other?  Is her lipstick on her teeth?  Dave's not inwardly laughing at her nerves, is he? - for the time being.  They wouldn't last soon anyway, and the ramp on the side of the ship was lowering and Rose absolutely could not help fixing her headband.  
  
Dave stepped a little closer, and she half expected him to tilt his head down and mutter teasingly in her ear, but instead he just grabs her hand and gives her the briefest of looks out of the corner of his eye.  
  
The look is returned, and satisfied that neither will mention it to the other later, they turn back to the ship.  
  
All is quiet for a few long moments, during which she hears Karkat hiss very softly - expecting an attack most likely.  Rose hopes her Seer powers would have foreseen any harm becoming to the ship, and also that if John does come exploding out of there like she's pictured him doing many, many times that Karkat doesn't get hugged first.  
  
Because John might end up stabbed.  That was all.  
  
But in a gust of wind, all her dreams come true, and suddenly John is sweeping both of his human friends up in a hug, all teeth and smiles and miles of ridiculous blue hood.  His face is moving too fast for her to study as he squishes her awkwardly against Dave, who is fighting a grin and losing, but he smells like that first crisp wind of autumn that stirred the drying leaves and fills her with energy and joy and peace.  
  
She's just given in to the smile when he lets them go and starts glancing at the trolls.  
  
"Which one of you is Vriska?"  
  
\---  
  
She doesn't see him for another few hours - which is okay, since of course he needed some time to cool down after that.  Well, she does see him from a distance, talking quietly with sometimes Terezi and Kanaya but mostly Karkat, who's never acted gentler.  
  
Dave comes up behind her suddenly, one of these times when she's subtly observing them from a distance, and leans on the hand he braces on the wall above her shoulder.  She is really getting sick of his subconscious lording his height over her.  It's only five or six inches, he is such a child.  
  
"Don't worry, ecto-sis," he half comforts, half teases her in his languid Texas drawl, "Egderp's not a homosexual."  
  
"How would you know?  Try to cop a feel and get rejected?"  
  
"I would if I could wheedle him away from your sight," he retorts, dropping the kindness and she feels a little guilty for that.  Retracting his hands and turning to walk the other way screams of bristled feathers, but she figures he can handle it and maybe she'll apologize later.  
  
But right now, John and Karkat are hugging and she leans a bit too far around the corner because John looks over the troll's shoulder and sees her.  
  
And he smiles.  
  
Everything is all right with the world again.  
  
\---  
  
"Aww man, I'm sorry for bailing on you guys earlier," John apologizes as he walks with Rose up to the golden ship.    
  
"There is no need for you to explain your actions.  I likely would have been as upset had Kanaya been dead on my arrival - or had you."  
  
She half expected him to give her a curious look and search her gaze to see if her words had any meaning to them, but he just tilts his head back and sighs, still smiling.  Rose placates herself by studying his rather (very) handsome features - trying to find the face of the boy she'd exchanged pictures with so many lifetimes ago.  
  
He's still there, especially in his bright blue eyes as he looks at her again.  
  
"Hey, I meant to do this to you earlier, but I kinda got... distracted."  There's still sadness in his gaze, and she almost wants to sit him down and get him to talk out the wounds in his heart but if she's honest with herself she does not want to hear about his feelings for Vriska.  
  
"Yes, John?"  
  
She tries to figure out what to do with her hands as he takes a breath.  
  
"Get on my back."  
  
He turns around, half squatting, like he's her big brother and is offering a piggy back ride, and he looks rather undignified like that but she wraps her arms around his neck and slides delicate legs through the loops his arms make and grips with her thighs like he's a pony.  
  
He jogs off and up the ramp, heading down a series of hallways, and Rose quietly ponders the sexual implications behind girls and their love of horses.  Was it the appeal of taming something as strong and potentially dangerous as the ideal man, gaining its trust, caring for it, being rescued by it and then riding it senseless?  
  
This fascinating train of thought was cut off when John opened a door that was actually a portal and suddenly he walked off into the air and dropped.  
  
Rose squeezed tighter, and then John took off.  The Breeze ruffled her hair past the point of her caring about how it was styled, and when she raised her head she was met with a beautiful view of blue, blue, blue.  John was leaning forward still, his hood down and streaming out behind them like the tail of a kite - when she looked down, she was relieved to see that the ground wasn't too far away, only about three stories down.  
  
Her heart was pounding in her chest as John dove, and for a brief moment like the highest point in the arc of a playground swing, she felt entirely weightless.  
  
"It's wonderful," she meant to say.  It came out more, "you're wonderful," and John's ears went a little red, so on impulse she kissed his neck and John wrapped her arms tighter around him and did a barrel roll.  
  
As he flew on, his ears almost purple from his blush, she really wised she could see his face.  Instead, she settled for sitting up and reaching her arms out straight beside her and singing the theme from the Titanic softly as they did an easy loop around the world.  
  
Rose never wanted to come back down again.


End file.
